Stuffed Turkey Breast

I love roasted turkey. I hate leftovers. After 2 days - turkey goes bad (at least as far as my palate is concerned). So Thanksgiving is a dilemma. Usually I go over to someone else's house. Last year it was a visit to Liz and Tom's. (I just re-read that blog entry - wow has my life changed in the past year.) This year - probably since I'm not hanging out with Lynn - I was not invited to the usual festivities. That sucks.

Anyway Thanksgiving dinner is just me and Jason here at the house. So this year I decided to try these turkey roll-ups - so as not to have gobs and gobs of food that gets thrown out. But still get that great taste of roasted turkey and stuffing.

a 2 pound turkey breast

2 cups fine bread crumbs
2 tablespoon minced onion
3 tablespoon minced celery
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
5 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup cream
salt and freshly ground pepper

For the bread crumbs I usually take some stale french or italian bread and run it through the blender. You can use stuffing croutons (but then go light on the sage) but you'll need to crush them for this application.

You can do any of the usual stuffing variations here - add bacon, sausage, use cornbread crumbs, whatever you like. But you need to keep a fairly fine texture.

Some folks don't like celery - you can substitute all onions or add some carrots.

Anyway, just mix all the ingredients up in a bowl. It should form a kind of paste - if it's dry and crumbly you should add an egg yolk or more cream.

Take a turkey breast and slice it into 1/2" to 3/4" thick steaks against the grain. Pound them out to 1/4" to 3/8" thickness. You're looking to make them about 6 or 7 inches long and about 4 or 5 inches wide.

Salt and pepper to taste. Spread on a thin layer of the stuffing - about 1/8" thick and roll it up. Tie with butcher's string.

Brown well in a skillet (not a non stick one - you can't brown it well, and then you can't make a good gravy) then place in an oven proof dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160.

Use the pan drippings to make a gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Thanksgiving without the leftovers!